Methods have been proposed for managing quality information where quality information provided during manufacture of steel products is shared by the manufacturer and customer. For example, JP 2003-84822 A describes a management method whereby quality information provided during manufacture of steel products is stored in a database by the manufacturer of these steel products and the stored quality information can be read online by a customer.
Further, kinds of quality information about steel pipes managed on a database have been proposed. For example, JP 2010-139394 A discloses an analysis method for providing at least one of the following kinds of information about a manufactured steel product: information about the composition of precipitates or the like; information about the sizes of precipitates or the like; and information about the solid solution amount of the element in interest. The analyzed information about precipitates and solid solution is stored as a management database.
A technique for identifying a steel pipe during the manufacturing process is described in, for example, WO 2008/015871 A, where the pipe is processed such that an identifier is formed at a position to be subjected to thread cutting. JP 2008-250714 A describes mounting an RFID tag on the pipe body of a seamless steel pipe or on a pipe end protector.